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- DALLAS -- What was tested in the laboratory now has been
proved in the field: Wild ocelots are as wild about Calvin Klein Obsession
cologne as their urban cousins.
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- U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials have been using the
cologne for several months at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge
near Rio Hondo, Texas, to lure ocelots for scientific tagging and identification.
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- "We don't know what the scent's ingredient is, but
whatever it is, it's powerful," said Tim Cooper, acting refuge manager.
"We've tried other scents on them, but they like their Calvin."
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- Cooper said wildlife officials purchased a bottle of
the scent last year after reading media reports of a research project at
the Dallas Zoo in which caged ocelots had a strong, even ardent, reaction
to the cologne.
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- The zoo had been testing scents to determine what would
attract the small, spotted felines, which weigh about 20 pounds. There
are only about 100 of the cats left in the United States, all of them in
South Texas.
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- After trying such substances as rat urine, ocelot feces
and snake musk, a zoo researcher placed a sample of her boyfriend's cologne
in the testing station. Zoo officials said at the time that the cats would
rub up against the sample, roll on it and even lie on top of it.
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- Cooper said it was unclear whether the wild ocelots had
as passionate a reaction to the Calvin Klein as those at the Dallas Zoo.
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- "We don't really have the luxury of observing them
in the wild the way they do in the zoo," he said. "But I'd say
it's reasonable to assume they react the same way."
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- A spokesman for Calvin Klein's Manhattan, N.Y., office
said she had no knowledge of the situation and was unable to comment.
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- Wildlife officials at Laguna Atascosa place the scents
in humane traps that are designed to capture the animals so they can be
collared or photographed for scientific purposes. Cooper said officials
there are also discussing rubbing the cologne on carpet samples, so that
the cats will roll on the scent, leaving hair samples for DNA testing.
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- Researchers initially hoped that the scent could be used
to lure the rare ocelots into a common area to facilitate breeding, but
that application has proved to be impractical.
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- "The problem is that ocelots tend to be territorial.
If a new one tried to come in, the other ocelots would prevent it,"
Cooper said.
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- In Dallas, meanwhile, the research has gone on.
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- Reports of the Calvin Klein tests resulted in a deluge
of mail to the zoo -- much of it from cat owners offering their own experiences
with perfume, cologne and toilet water.
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- "There seems to be a consensus that anything with
menthol in it works pretty well," said Cynthia Bennett, the Dallas
Zoo's director of research. She said her staff has been working with a
perfume-mixing company to isolate exactly what it is about Obsession that
so attracts the cats.
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- Although testing is incomplete, she said she believes
her initial hunch will be born out: The magic ingredient is a chemical
musk.
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- The Dallas Zoo had initially worked only with female
ocelots, but Cooper said male ocelots have also been found to be lured
by the scent. Researchers at the zoo have since noticed the same phenomenon,
although the male reaction varies, Bennett said.
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- In fact, zoo researchers say they now hope to develop
a scent that will more consistently attract ocelots of both sexes.
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- Like any scientist, Bennett said she is just pleased
to see a practical application of her research.
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- "I'm thrilled," she said. "I'm glad someone
finally went ahead and tried it."
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- (c) 2000, The Dallas Morning News http://www.dallasnews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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